The Midweek Long Run

It is approximately 9am on Wednesday morning.  Typically, I'd be grabbing coffee and an egg sandwich on my way into the office (yep - I eat eggs every weekday.  Suck it, cholesterol!).  Currently, I am sitting on my couch, on a towel because of swamp ass, watching whatever comes on after Morning Joe (Chuck Todd, as it turns out).  This is because I'll be traveling for work for the remainder of the week, through Sunday, and won't have a spare three hours this weekend during a conference to get a long run done.  Being the diligent athlete that I am (note: I did not bother doing a long run last week...), I spoke with my boss and arranged to run long this morning, before work. Here is some miscellany from this run:

- I woke up at 4:45am to do this.  It was not a challenge, because my cat friend's favorite time to bite me into a state of waking is 4:45am.  Serendipity!

- I spent an hour drinking coffee, watching last's night Rachel Maddow (I don't work for MSNBC, despite already making two plugs...) and eating a chocolate peanut butter Pop Tart.  All you "eat real food" people are real dumb.  Pop Tarts are where its at.  I also spent approximately 20 minutes convincing myself to go running, and very nearly bailed on this.

- I continued this line of thinking for miles 1-4, and kept threatening to turn around because "I can do it later." No, you can't.

- Once I resigned myself to the fact that this was happening, miles 5-11 were quite delightful.  I ran one full loop of the Park, then headed to the Reservoir for two loops up there.  I seldom run up there, mostly because it's perfectly flat, which isn't the best for training, but it is quite pretty, and the dirt surface is forgiving.  There was also an awesome breeze and low humidity and generally speaking it was as pleasant as waking up at 4:45am to run 19 miles can be.

-From miles 11-13, I gave myself crippling work-related anxiety.  This has been a theme for the past 2 weeks.  It's fun.  (It's not fun.  Between the cholesterol from those eggs and the cortisol from stress, I imagine my blood work looks a lot like a 50 year old fat man's).

- At mile 13, I set off for one last 5 mile loop, and anxiety gave way to incredible muscle fatigue.  Despite a pasta feast and a beer (Ommegang Hennepin) last night, the aforementioned (and delicious) Pop Tart, and a Gu at mile 7, I was tanking.  I hung in for another 2 miles, and had another Gu at mile 15.  I realize it barely had time to start working by the time I was finished running, but mostly it gave me something to think about.

- I carried cash with me and picked up my laundry immediately upon finishing my run.  It was exceedingly difficult to keep from clutching a 14lb bag of laundry against my soaking wet chest.  Also soaking wet was the $20 bill I handed over to pay for my laundry.  Sorry for partying?

- It's a truly terrible feeling to come home from a long run and realize you cannot reward yourself with a beer.  It's not the 9am part that's stopping me, of course; it's the office that's waiting for my delayed arrival.

- The whole point of doing this today was that I have work obligations all weekend.  These obligations include a gala dinner on Friday night.  Which I'll now attend with sports bra chafe lines all over my chest as a result of this morning's run.  I can't win.

The good news is my long run is done and my metatarsals appear to be in tact.  The bad news is that now my colleagues get to learn first hand what "runger" is like.  Good luck to them.

(As mentioned, I'm traveling for the rest of the week.  I still have 3 workouts to get done, including a GMP run, so I'll be in the Hilton fitness center whenever I can be.  I'll send word when I can.  I know you'll be waiting on the edge of your seat...)